Market brief
Bahrain
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Bahrain, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for BahrainMarket snapshot
The commercial picture in Bahrain: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Percentile among all countries; higher is more stable.
Investment climate
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkActive (IWPP)
- Tracked pipelineUS$ 4.1 bn in our projects register
- Active fundersSovereign budget, GCC funds
- Climate adaptation planAdopted (2022)
Opportunities
- RO capacity expansion
- Treated-effluent reuse
- Smart metering
- Solar integration
Key challenges
- Total dependence on desalination
- Depleted Dammam aquifer
- High consumption
- Small footprint
Sources: FAO AQUASTAT / national reports (latest available); World Bank 2023–24. Figures approximate. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2024).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Bahrain. Ministries set policy and sign the offtake; utilities run the assets; regulators set the tariff and the service standard.
- Ministry of WorksMinistry
- Electricity & Water Authority (EWA)Utility
- Water Resources CouncilBasin & resources authority
- Supreme Council for EnvironmentEnvironment
How deals are structured
The framework in Bahrain is Active (IWPP), the schemes we track carry US$ 4.1 bn of disclosed value, and the funders most active in the sector are Sovereign budget, GCC funds.
Delivery splits by asset class across the region: dams and trunk conveyance are mostly engineering contracts carried by sovereign or development-bank finance; bulk supply increasingly uses build-operate-transfer concessions against a long-term offtake; and distribution work is let as performance-based contracts paid against measured leakage reduction. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
The projects register bears this out. Of the 8 tracked schemes in Bahrain, 3 name a concession structure and 1 names EPC delivery in the finance note; the rest record only where the money came from, which is not the same as saying they were not concessions.
How to bid
Bahrain’s water procurement is small, closed and unusually candid about how to get in. The Electricity and Water Authority completed pre-qualification for the 60 million gallon a day Hidd independent water plant and named the nine qualified companies and consortia; for anyone not on that list it published the way in, encouraging interested contractors and investors to engage the pre-qualified entities directly about partnerships.1
| Procuring body | The Electricity and Water Authority, which is both the utility and the procurer of independent water plants.1 |
|---|---|
| Route | Closed pre-qualification, then invitation. Nine developers qualified for Hidd: TAQA, ACWA Power, Gulf Investment Corporation, GS Inima, Al Jomaih Energy and Water, JERA Middle East and Africa Management, KEPCO, Sumitomo Corporation and China Machinery Engineering Corporation.1 |
| Contract form | Build-own-operate for Hidd, 60 million gallons a day of reverse osmosis, with commercial operation expected in the second quarter of 2028. No term is published.1 |
| Conventional tenders | A paper process. Documents are requested from the purchasing and supply directorate at least 48 hours before closing, bids are sealed and physically submitted, and the authority publishes opening results with the number of bids received.2 |
| Approved lists | The authority maintains approved lists of water manufacturers and contractors, plus plumber licensing and water pre-qualification services.2 |
What could not be established: a dedicated Bahraini partnership law, the Hidd contract term, payment security, governing law, dispute forum, foreign ownership limits and tax. The Hidd release names no legal basis, and no separate statute was located.
Regulatory intelligence
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| IWPP framework | Active | — | Al Dur programme with published tariffs. |
| Tariff reform | Phased | 2016– | Stepped increases, citizen lifeline preserved. |
| Groundwater protection | In force | — | Dammam abstraction licensing. |
Primary reference: the Electricity & Water Authority (EWA).
Projects
Tracked schemes in Bahrain, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
Track record
What has actually been signed in Bahrain, from the awards log and the major projects register.
Disclosed value by year
US$ bn of tracked awards in Bahrain carrying a published value
2 further awards in this sector carry no published value and are not in the chart.
| Year | Project | Winning firms | US$ m |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 on line | Al Dur 2 IWPP | SEPCO III, Power China and Sidem consortium | 1,100 |
| 2018 on line | Tubli Water Pollution Control Centre | WTE Wassertechnik, Azmeel Contracting and Tecton Engineering consortium | n/a |
| 2011 on line | Muharraq Wastewater Treatment Plant BOOT | Samsung Engineering (now Samsung E and A) as lead developer and EPC contractor | 310 |
| 2008 on line | Al Dur 1 IWPP | Hyundai Heavy Industries (EPC), with Degremont supplying the reverse osmosis plant and General Electric the turbines | 2,100 |
| 2006 on line | Al Hidd IWPP | Sidem (Veolia Water Technologies) as EPC contractor for the MED expansion, with GPZ as main civil contractor | n/a |
Years without a label are award years from the curated log; rows marked on line are dated by commissioning, from the projects register. 5 rows in total for Bahrain.
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Bahrain, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.07 – 2.05 | not published | 2026 | Electricity & Water Authority, ewa.bh/en/tariff |
A subsidised Bahraini household pays 25 fils/m³ to 60 m³, 80 fils from 61 to 100 m³ and 775 fils above it. Bahrainis with more than one account, non-Bahrainis and commercial customers pay 775 fils/m³ from the first cubic metre: a thirty-one-fold gap on the same water. One subsidised account per household, and the holder must be registered as head of household.
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
What has actually moved in Bahrain, dated, from the monthly briefings. Each item names the edition it came from.
- 2026-03A drone damaged a desalination plant on 8 March. The Electricity and Water Authority said supply to residents was not interrupted.August 2026 briefing
The full editions are in the briefing archive.
Sources
7 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- Electricity and Water Authority (Bahrain), international tender for the 60 MIGD Hidd independent water plant.
- Electricity and Water Authority (Bahrain), tenders.
- FAO, AQUASTAT — Global Information System on Water and Agriculture: country water resources, withdrawals by sector and dam register. fao.org/aquastat. Latest country values as compiled at build.
- World Bank, World Development Indicators and country water-sector reporting. data.worldbank.org.
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2024 update — political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- World Resources Institute, Aqueduct 4.0 Water Risk Atlas (2023) — the sub-basin risk, stress and groundwater-decline layers on the interactive maps. wri.org/aqueduct.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.